Barton's Blog

Well last night they made it officially, offical.  Dell is preloading Ubuntu 7.04 on the XPS™ 410n and Dimension™ E520n desktops and the Inspiron™ E1505n notebook.  The Open Source product manager at Dell thinks they'll sell 20K units, who knows could be a lot more.

Give the People what they want:  Late this afternoon, the web pages on both sites were updated to feature the news and to allow web-based purchasing of  the Ubuntu/Dell systems.  On the Dell site the Ubuntu announcement is one of the rotating homepage features.   The headline reads:  "By Popular Demand Ubuntu has arrived."  Followed by,  "The Dell community spoke and we listened.  The Linux-based operating system is now available for work or home."  The Ubuntu home page is a little cheekier: "Ubuntu is super easy to install.  But Why not have Michael do the work for you. Ubuntu on Dell.  Available Now.  Configure and Buy!"

Collateral Damage Advantage:  And more good news within this announcement is the fact that by virtue of offering systems preloaded with Ubuntu, Dell becomes the first Tier 1 PC vendor to distribute OpenOffice.   Consumers are now able to obtain,from a top shelf manufacturer, a free and open source alternative to proprietary productivity suites .

A big day in the FOSS world all around.

A toast to Michael and Mark!

Pau for now...